Bare cost
Updated 2026-07-17 · figures as of July 2026
Bare cost is the material and labor cost of a work item and nothing else: no contractor overhead, no profit, no supervision, no warranty risk, no general conditions. It is the floor a job cannot be built below, and it is never the price.
Costbooks publish bare costs because they are the stable, comparable layer. Everything above bare cost is a business decision that varies by contractor, which is why two honest bids on identical scope can differ while both being correct.
Why should a contractor never bid at bare cost?
Because bare cost pays for the work and nothing else. Insurance, vehicles, estimating time, callbacks, supervision, and profit all live in the markup. A bare-cost bid wins the job and loses the business. In a three-tier view, Bare exists to show the floor so the real bid, typically +25% or more, is chosen deliberately instead of drifting toward the floor under pressure.
How does bare cost relate to a grounded estimate?
A grounded estimate prices each scope line against a current, local bare-cost reference rather than memory or a national average. The estimate then applies markup in the open. Grounding is about where the floor comes from; markup is about where the price goes.
Price your next Tampa Bay job from the same grounded cost data these figures come from, with your margin visible at three tiers before you bid.
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